Music & Culture

Why Christian Moms Would Never Enter Their Little Girls in Pageants

Before I delve into this post, I want to define what I’ll be referring to as a “Christian mom.”

I’m sure there are moms who are Christian and who enter their little girls in pageants. However, when I refer to “Christian moms,” I mean those women who hold Christ in their hearts, who live the Gospel and who strive to glorify and please God. They’re not just born Christan, or say they’re Christian–they live Christian in everything they say and do.

A Christian mom is the type of mother who is traditional in her ways and strives to maintain Christian values in her family. She understands what is expected of her as a child of God, a woman, a mother and, if applicable, a wife. It is this Christian mom that I believe would never enter her little daughter in pageants or even highly toxic dance competitions, as demonstrated in the show Dance Moms.

Toddlers & Tiaras and Dance Moms both demonstrate environments that sexualize children. These little girls are dressed as grown-up women with tons of makeup and giant hairdos. They’re trained to parade around in provocative outfits and in a suggestive manner, wiggling and shaking and strutting around. They’re also often prompted to sing and dance to suggestive songs.

A Christian mom understands that Christ expects modesty in all women and that it is outrageous to sexualize a child for any reason. Not only is a woman supposed to maintain modesty herself, but a mother is responsible for instilling modesty in her daughter from a very young age. A Christian mom also protects her child’s purity and innocence.

Pageants send such a bad message about inner versus outer beauty, and at a very young age. Basically, these little girls learn their worth dependent on their looks. If they look better than the other girls, then they believe they’re worth something; otherwise there’s something wrong with them. Their character is irrelevant. In fact, they’re usually brought up to be mean and spiteful, thus contaminating the heart, which God looks to rather than the face. Sure, it’s good to compete, but these competitions don’t bring the good out in these young girls. They bring out the worst.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t-bZe_8JAo

A Christian mom focuses on developing her child’s heart. She understands that God looks to the heart, not the physical appearance.

Child pageants put young girls in danger. We’ve all heard the story about JonBenét Ramsey. There are scary people in the world, including predators who are obsessed with young girls. A child in this situation is exposed and put on display for any crazy man out there looking to check out young girls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=qbNrRbRpn2w

A Christian mother recognizes her child is God’s and that she has been called to take care of His gift. As a result, a Christian mother wouldn’t put God’s child at risk.

Moms of pageant children take these events very seriously. This is evident in Toddlers & Tiaras and Dance Moms. When can a child be a child if she’s busy practicing and performing and competing? A childhood is lost in this environment. Instead of creating childhood friendships and playing innocent games, these little girls create negative relationships with competitors and miss out on the joys of being a fun-loving, innocent child.

A Christian mom understands the significance of a childhood. She allows her child to grow according to her age and she welcomes and nurtures their innocence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64t_30NKwkw&feature=related

Often, the pageants are an outlet for the mothers to fulfill their own selfish desires. Christian moms are not selfish. They put their children first.

There are so many reasons a Christian mother would never enter her child in a pageant. The bottom line is that the nature of a child pageant is so far from what God asks of parents. I also find child pageants to be so offensive because they strip children of their childhood, innocence and purity.

Ladies, do you think that Christian moms would enter their children into pageants?

Come on… Really? I’ve done pageants for 31 years and have loved every minute of it. Please do your research thoroughly before bashing people for doing what they enjoy. I’ve been doing them since I was two and wouldn’t have changed it for the world. It opened up opportunities that I otherwise wouldn’t have had if I had not competed growing up. (Ex… I perform in musical theatre. My vocal teacher found me at a pageant. If I had not been discovered there, I probably would not have gone to school on a full vocal scholarship to further my education. It opened the opportunity to tour Hawaii and sing in Carnegie Hall. All from a pageant.) It teaches the exact same thing as sports only with better shoes. I was raised in a christian home with christian values, but competing in pageants never detoured my beliefs or my faith. You can be made up and compete and still hold christian values…. BTW… What you see on television is not how everyone who participates in pageantry behaves.

I don’t think the SHOULD, but that doesn’t mean they WON’T. Everyone makes mistakes and does things that may not be what God wants for them, so saying that a Christian mom would never do something is kind of beside the point. It’s wrong, but it probably happens. I don’t completely understand the point of this article, especially since it’s geared towards teen girls, not Christian mothers?

i watch toddlers and tiaras and some moms are kinda outragous but not all of them are like there was a Christian mom on one episode and she prayed that the Lord would let her daughter compete. i still love that show

The makeup, fake hair, spray tans, eyebrow waxing, and immodest clothing are absolutely AWFUL and UNACCEPTABLE! But i gotta say, for some reason, nothing bugs and disturbs me more than the fake teeth!! They call them flippers. I think a little girl’s smile is absolutely adorable. But when these girls teeth or the least bit crooked or they are missing teeth (which is so cute!) or even if they think that their teeth are to small, they put these freaking flippers in their mouth so that their teeth are perfectly straight and white which is so unnatural, especially in girls this young! I mean seriously! All people are naturally beautiful, but these moms go to such extremes to make their little girls look “perfect”. 🙁 pray for them, girlies

i don’t know about all you, but i find that seeing children wearing that much makeup really disturbs me. i am not a showgirl, and i think that the parents are turning these children into something that they’re not. it is so sad.

Its actually really sad that these pageants exist. I mean, what is going to happen when these girls get to high school? When wearing expensive outfits and being pretty doesn’t get you any anywhere in life? Its going to be a rude wake-up call to these girls AND their moms/parents.

I think that these moms probably do this because they see themselves in their child, which is NOT okay! Why can’t they let the girls follow their own dreams and discover themselves? These girls are going to grow up believing looks are their top priority. I think that they should let them discover interests on their own.

It’s so awful how much makeup they wear! They look like a plastic barbie on stage and then you see them without makeup on and their face looks like it’s a whole different shape, their nose is different, their hair isn’t like that, and they don’t act like that!!! Thank you God for my mom, and I pray for all the pageant moms and girls.

I dont think that a christian mom should even consider entering her daughter into a beauty pagent because It will only make these young girls think that the have to dress a certain way or wear makeup or even act a certain way to look pretty… god created us all beautifully in our own ways and entering your daughter into a beauty pagent isnt going to show her that…

Now,dance moms do not always dress the girls up in “sexy” clothing.It depends on what theme abby is doing.They have very classy dance routines in episodes.Where the girls are wearing appro. clothing.Not showing anything that’s not suppose to be shown.They do ballet/gymnastic dancing which is really hard so why dance in a costume all the way to the floor.All of the girls are so tiny so it will be hard for them to jump and stuff.She could’ve used less revealing sexy clothing.She really could have.When the girls go over the routine they have to wear shorts or something since they are doing extreme proffesonal dancing.You cant dance in long sweats or dresses etc.If you havent seen a full season or two you WILL get the wrong picture of the show if you come in on a episode and never watch it again.I DO NOT like toddlers and tirars at all! Disturbing.That’s all.

this is one of the grossest things i have ever seen! as far as i am concerned these pageants don’t “build self-confidence,” they crush it,when i look at this,it makes me SICK,because that’s what it is,SICK! a Christian would never want to go through that,and a Christian mom shouldn’t want to put her little girl through this. what are they going to do when they lose one of these things? they won’t feel beautiful,they will be discouraged,and worst of all,they feel they are not good enough! this is the kind of stuff that makes me sick!

when i first heard of dance moms i was like “wow!” Because Holly frasier was my dean of middle school. I couldn’t believe she would do something like that, i had never known her as that type of women. when she left her job I was amazed. She had a great job at a great school and she gave it up for a show. she has a son in 7th grade and she and her husband never come watch his games.

If this is where America is going, then I’m moving to Australia. This is SO wrong, on SO many levels. I’m sorry, but I don’t think moms, Christian or not, should be telling their kids how much better they are than the world. Its disgusting. Ugh. Whatever happened to a 5 year old in overalls??

But if everyone good left a place, then all that’s left is evil and destruction. That doesn’t exactly make the world beautiful, it makes it have a scar. Instead of running from it grace_smith15, we should stay, pray, and help out those we can. We are lights. What kind of people does it make us if we just leave?

I cannot beleive people who are Christian are saying how horrible these mothers are. You say its only the others fulfilling their own goals, but some children actually adore doing the pageants. I do not know why you say it is so disgusting. I feel it does not take the innocence and childhood of a child! How would it? Other than when they do pageants, the children do normal everyday things, theyre not dirty like you are trying to say.

People say it’s wrong because these girls are doing provocative dances at the innocent age of 5 or below. They’re wearing make-up which can damage skin one reason why some girls look crazy when they decided to not wear make-up one day. I assure you pedophiles love these events and probably record the shows. No one is saying that the children are dirty. Just saying that they shouldn’t be told to act in a dirty or provocative way to win a prize. That can mess up their psyche.

And I do think that hte Dance Mom’s clip was very inappropriate (Can’t believe those moms went along with it!) ANd I don’t agree that beauty pageants say that you must be beautiful to succeed in life, I mean there are personality awards, congeniality awards, sometimes pageants give out tiaras for girls who collect the most pledges for a charity supported by the pageant, plus there are scholorship pageants, and if you think pageants are wrong then… don’t be in them! I don’t mean to be rude, but I am a Christian girl and I think beauty pageants are A-Okay and when I graduate high school I will be competing in every scholorship pageant I can! And also, many pageants ask girls questions that take intelligence and deep thinking to answer! Not just the stereotypical “How would you create world peace?” Thats silly!

I disagree when some people think its disgusting! I don’t mean to offend anyone, but as a girl who who loves fashion and performing and clothes and make up, I would love to have walked a pageant stage in a princess dress! If little girls are being forced to do it by their mother who are trying to live their lives through their poor little girls, or are being too risque and provacative, then yes I agree that it is wrong and unnecessary. But I absolutely DO NOT think you can judge some ones faith by whether or not they believe in pageants! That is judgemental and wrong!

I think that to a certain extent pageants are okay, but you have to be verrrrryyyyyy careful. My tips would be:

1. Make sure the child is the one who wants to do it. Putting your daughter in a pageant just because you want to dress her up like a doll will not do anything good for you or your child. If your kid says to you at any point that she doesn’t want to do pageants, drop out immediately.

2. Go for natural pageants, not glitz. Glitz pageants cover the girls in makeup and spray-tans to the point where they are not even recognizable as a child. Keep their youthful innocence intact by simply giving them cute MODEST clothes so they can show off their natural beauty. 🙂

3. Like I said earlier, keep the clothing modest! Also keep choreography modest. They’re still kids and should not be sexualized in any way, so don’t make them do provocative moves on stage in front of so many people!

Basically, if you go the “Toddlers and Tiaras” route, it’s not good for you, but there are ways through pageantry that are much more safe.

Not only is it completely unfair to the child if she loses because at her young tender age it shows that she is not good enough and girls already get that feeling too much you don’t need to start feeling like that at 5. Also if you strip away innocence from a child and fun what do they have left? All they are doing is fufilling their parents dream which is sick…

how does it boost their self-esteem? it makes them think they have to be beautiful and sexy to be worth something. the girls who do the pageants are brats. they throw temper tantrums if they dont win the highest title

i hate beauty pageants. they tell girls that the only thing that means anything is beauty. i used to do dance but then i quit because i hated all the makeup and fakeness and the teachers were weird and we had to do dances where our costumes were definetly not modest and we had to do things that were not appropriate. there was a male teacher who said some of the girls in the class were not acting “sexy” enough for the dance we were doing. it was disgusting.

These shows are so sick… Those poor little girls never had a chance when they’re living their moms’ dreams. It is so sad to see girls dancing so provocatively at such a young age. My friends and family tell me I could be a model (I’m 5’8 and have REALLY long legs) but I always say thanks, but I like to eat. This is what kids should be doing, not dancing like strippers. 🙁

what kind of screwed up person would put their child through that? They’re 8 nd 9 they should be on the playground in the 1st grade somewhere, not in front of the cameras feeling low about themselves cuz they didn’t win a title, some of them can barely speak properly theyre so little, and one of the reasons why they do that is cuz most little girls are skinny and flat chested, just what they want nd mostly can’t find in grown women, this makes me so angry I feel bad for every girl there, I was gonna be in a pageant once but I was 14 nd it was basically a God centered pageant, there was no swimsuits or anything like that, it was strictly modest nd fun, I dropped out because I realized it wasn’t my thing, some of these girls will grow up confused nd unhappy, God help these terrible mothers.

I definitely think that beauty pageants are WAY over the top. Geez, they start practically from infancy. That is absurd. I think that natural pageants, where they are presented in a natural, normal setting, is a bit better. But it still is emphasizing outer beauty instead of inner beauty. Perhaps they’re fine for middle/older teens, who know that inner beauty counts the most, but for children, NO WAY!

I will never let my future little girl go through this. Little girls should have plastic crowns instead of those skyscrapers that are supposed to be crowns. I’d rather see a wand my little girl’s hand rather than a trophy for something as vile as this. I think society is pushing girls to grow up to quick. It’s really sad to see 6 year olds trying to act 3 times their age…

I think it depends on the type on pageant. Glits pageants I think are ridiculous. You dress girls up very provocatively and parade them around on a stage. That I find very disturbing and it could harm a girls view of herself. However, there are other pageants that are more like scholarship pageants where you don’t do the excessive makeup, big hair, and fake teeth. I have a friend who does this type of pageant and she loves it and if you win you can win college money. I think it just depends on the type of pageant and the motive in which you are entering the pageant.

This is VERY disturbing. No mom in there right mind would put there little girl through this. The wear more make up then I do and Im 15. Why do you want your little girl wearing so much make up and inopropert clothing at such a young age? It distugest me that little girls are doing this. They will never get to have a normal childhood if they are always doing pagents.

I think it is absurd and unnecessary to have kids in pageants. I do not want o sound like a prude, but anyone who says beauty is what gives one a life is probably materialistic and lost. Don’t they know the damage these moms are doing? Maybe we can pray for these girls and their moms. To realize that true beauty is is God. Some moms say that “oh i thought it was bad at first and then we joined pageants and we love it” but let me tell you, my cousin (age 5) is in local pageants and she has the attitude and the look of a Bratz Doll. I guess we need to keep praying. But yes…do you think it would be legally and morally right to make a petition to at least refine the rules of pageantry?

I don’t like the idea of these pageants anymore than you do. If my daughter ever actually wanted to do one, I might let her. But she would wear modest clothing, and know that she wasn’t there just to show off her body. I’m so glad I was never put in one.

Beauty pageants I believe used to be a fun event for mothers and daughters. I’m all for that kind, but not the way these mothers sexualize their daughters and make them wear makeup and get all these uneccessary treatments. Let kids be kids! They don’t need to worry about how other people perceive them right now.

It’s so sad how incredibly low they put themselves when they don’t win or win what they want to. I know it hurts to lose,trust me,but you still need to be a good sport and be proud of yourself. It’s amazing how these mothers repremand these kids for not winning a stupid pageant.When a girl wins a pageant,the parents feel that they are winning because of their selfish desires.Same thing for losing. Half these parents only scold,and never say how proud they are of their children,even if they lose. I also hate how they put these tight and revealing clothes on them. Above all, I absolutely loathe all they makeup the put on these girls! These girls wear more makeup than the teenagers in their pagents. These girls are only in single digits. Ridculious!

My MOM means EVERYTHING to me. Ever since I was little, we went shopping together, she cared for me and loved me, gave me a warm home and she taught me to value myself. And by valuing myself she means waiting to have a relationship with the RIGHT guy and dressing modestly. When I was little, I was wearing cute little outfits and dresses and skinning my knees and barely even worrying looking “pretty.” This day and age and with these types of girls? THEY’RE TOLD TO DRESS AND ACT LIKE PROSTITUTES! (Excuse my language, but REALLY what other word am I supposed to use!? DANCING IN NUDE COLORED UNDERWEAR AND BURLESQUE DANCING WHICH IS A SEXY TEASE DANCE!?)

I am worried for these girls. Mothers are supposed to be our role models. A true Mom will tell us that we are beautiful and should never push us to do these things. Again, I am very worried. These girls need to grow up in the home I have been living in–where I’ve learned that my parents aren’t perfect Christians but they keep Christian values and mottos. We need to pray hard-core for girls who are having to deal with parents–especially moms–who are failing their job as a mother and parent. This is sad. No girl should ever be forced to do this. This is almost like those girls in third world countries who are sold to a sex-related organization for money by their parents who need food. This is so not right. This should be illegal. I know porn is, but since this is obviously legal because it’s on TV, it should be illegal. We do not need girls being sexualized when they’re not even TEENAGERS!

Oh and in the second video the “mom” says “praying” like she was sitting there going “oh please dear God allow my daughter to get all these beauty awards so that could potentially boost her self esteem!” (How is sexualizing yourself supposed to boost up your self esteem?! For example, Nicole was used by the Devil in his “playground” and she felt used and abused! I do give her a lot of “props” for coming back and using her model carrier to become an amazing role model for young Christian girls.)